Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi is one of the most extreme of the Takfiris and his writings and ideas are behind much of the terrorism in the Muslim lands. Many youth in Saudi Arabia were drawn towards al-Maqdisi after the nurturing of takfir and revolution they received from the likes of Safar al-Hawali and Salman al-Awdah in the 1990s.

Quote: It is believed that al-Maqdisi, full name, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi Isaam bin Tahir al-Barqawi, is Circassian, from the former Soviet Union who emigrated to Palestine. Al-Maqdisi used to live, in the days of his youth, in Kuwait and he used to work in Maktabah as-Sahabah along with Fu'ad ar-Rifaa'ee at the beginning of the setting up of this publishing house. After leaving Fu'ad he did some freelance work on his own and lived in the Sabaahiyyah district of Kuwait.

A year after this, in 1986, he went to Afghanistan and he joined up with takfiri militants and he trained with the Jamaa'at ut-Takfir. Then when he returned to Kuwait the effects of that began to show upon him, with this new ideology, when signs of taqiyah (dissimulation) in manifesting his real creed were observed. He would make a remark to see how a person would respond to it, and then if the person showed agreement, he would manifest his real doctrine and if not he would say, "I am joking with you."

It was in this manner that he began to change and prior to this he studied under Muhammad Suroor in the Khaytan district (of Kuwait) and he was part of Suroor's jamaa'ah as he himself acknowledge in his own book "I'daad al-Qaadah al-Fawaaris Fee Bayaan Fasaad al-Madaaris".